Ghana and AfDB sign $135 million financing agreements

Ghana and the African Development Bank on Wednesday signed two financing agreements totaling $135 million, to enhance the capacity of private sector institutions and to promote technical skills development.

An amount of about $120 million will be used for technical based skills training while $14.5 million will go into institutional support projects.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Finance and Economic Planning Minister signed for Ghana and Ms Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, Resident Representative of the African Development Bank in Ghana initialed on behalf of her organisation.

Dr Duffuor said government recognized the development of relevant technical skills as important to improving productivity and enhancing the country’s competitiveness.

He said the development of job related competencies in Technical and Vocational skills was a catalyst for the development of small and medium scale enterprises, which represented a significant proportion of the country’s economy.

The project, he said, would contribute to address the key issue of human capital development through increasing the capacity of the country to produce high calibre technical and vocational skills to facilitate readiness for technological change and meet the demands of industry.

Specifically, the project aims to expand equitable access to public institutions, targeting females and the rural poor, improving the relevance and quality of Technical and Vocational Education training delivery and improving management of TVET at the coordination and school based institutional levels.

On the institutional support project, Dr Duffuor said it would help strengthen the non-tax revenue mobilization framework, enhance the capacity of the Private Enterprise Foundation, National Board of Small Scale Industries and the Ghana Stock Exchange to support small and medium enterprise and enhance capacity in Financial sector policy formulation.

In addition, the project will help in the development of an online Aid Management Information System to provide an automated platform to monitor and report on donor assisted activities thereby helping planners and policy makers to easily determine which donor is doing what, where and when.

Ms Akin-Olugbade said the signing of the two agreements was a demonstration of the Bank’s continued engagement in Ghana and the beginning of the implementation of the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) approved in June this year.

The CSP is the blueprint of the Bank Group operation spanning the period 2012-2016 and targets improving productivity in Ghanaian enterprises and supporting economic and structural reform aimed at improving the business environment.

Ms Akin-Olugbade said the development of vocational skills would contribute to the provision of quality intermediate level, technical and vocational training skills needed to foster increased productivity and economic growth to reduce poverty.